City center as a battle field: real estate market discusses the perspectives of St. Petersburg development

The head of the real estate and construction practice Maxima Legal Evgeny Druzhinin took part in a round table Battle for the city center: society, business and  authorities  in their search for the compromise. The event organized by the editorial board of the newspaper ‘Nedvizhimost i stroitelstvo Peterburga’ (Real estate and construction of St. Petersburg)  with support of the non-profit organization Russian Guild of managers and developers took place on May 19 in the hall of the Investment projects.

The major discussion topic was the problem of retaining the historic identity in the process of restructuring and development of St. Petersburg’ city center.  The participants of the meeting strived to define the ways to enhance the investment attractiveness of the city center against the background of the strict legislative requirements and obligations towards the global society by means of a collective discussion.

Evgeny Druzhinin:

“The conflict of interests existing between the businessmen, developers and city safeguards in relation to the complex city center improvements is a long-standing conflict which has become classic for  St. Petersburg. We strive to observe how it is done in European cities and use the global expertise, search for compromises between the progress and the historical identity, though one thing is clear at this moment: the city will not succeed in solving the problem without a strict and strong-willed policies of the authorities”